Our last week in Bogotá was a very special time, but a sad one also, as I don't like goodbyes. We spent Monday and Tuesday trying to finish off the project with the kids. Unfortunately, the farmers decided they wanted to strike on these days, meaning traveling across the centre of the city was near impossible, so only about 10 pupils turned up on Monday, and about 20 on the Tuesday. Never mind! We got the background board spray painted in the school colours (a bit of manly time for Josh!!) and have stuck down all the tiles we had so far, and we have left instructions for finishing it off, so hopefully when we drop in at the end of our time in Colombia, it'll be finished.
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On Wednesday we had a party to say goodbye to the pupils, as they had a bank holiday (again!!) on the Thursday and a PD day on the Friday. We decided we would get the students to make most of the food for the party, so we also had some cooking lessons on Tuesday. One group made marble cake, another made a bakewell traybake, and another made mini trifles.
We decorated the assembly hall with Colombian and British bunting and flags and lots of balloons. We'd put together a photo slideshow of all the things we had done with them since we arrived, which they found hilarious. Then they tucked in to the party food - with the typically British mini cheese and jam sandwiches (separate, but only because we were making them, not the Colombians!) and big bowls of crisps added to the baking efforts of the classes. Crisps here are super cool. They have these things called De Toditos, that have 3 or 4 different types of crisp in one packet. Why do we not have this back home?!
After the food, we presented each student with a certificate and a union jack coloured friendship bracelet to remember us by. We had also bought a coffee maker for the staff to put in their staff room to say thanks for all their hard work, kindness and support. Then the kids surprised us! They had put together a photo of the whole school with each of us round the edge doing our name signs, and had bought us all a mochila (a Colombian style of bag).
They then opened the floor for anyone who wanted to say a few words, and almost half the school stood up to say something! One of the most special was a boy called Alvaro, who has the most infectious laugh ever, and is always laughing at something. He stood up and said 'before you guys came, I didn't really think I was good enough to do anything as a career. I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do. But then you came and did the cooking lessons with us and I really enjoyed them and now I think I would like to be a chef when I'm older, because I think I would be good at that'. It was amazing to hear how we had had an impact for him, in a way we could never have imagined. Lots of the pupils came up to me to say how much they had loved the music lessons too, and how much they had learnt through them, which was a real encouragement as these were the hardest lessons we had! After we had said our goodbyes, the staff then had planned another party for us, which was great fun. We had avena, a milky drink made from oats and pan de bono (I think, there's a few with quite similar names!) which are round balls of bread with cheese in.
We used Thursday as a spiritual reflection day. We started off with worship, followed by a prayer walk around Chapinero. We then watched the Passion of the Christ. It was the first time I saw this film, and although I had to watch most of it from behind a cushion, I'm really glad I have now watched it, because I think it gives more depth and meaning to the Easter story. We also had some time for private bible study, in which I looked at some of the prophesies that Jesus fulfilled, which was really interesting. We then enjoyed another delicious bowl of ahiaco (the lovely Colombian soup) and headed to Abi's house for a change of scenery for the afternoon. Abi did a devotion with us on being a Christian at uni, which was great. She took a totally different angle to any of the talks/devotions I've heard on this before, which was so interesting and helpful. After that we looked at the armour of God in detail, and finally listened to a sermon by Simon Guillebaud whilst eating some amazing pizzas. All in all, a really great day and nice to have time to reflect.
On Friday morning we did a couple of things we had left to do in the centre of Bogotá. When we got back, one of the church members had come to give us a little present and to say goodbye, which was so kind of her and really reinforced our feeling of truly belonging to the Vineyard church. It wasn't until about 6 that we managed to start the packing process, and sorting the kitchen and communal room out, so we didn't make it to bed until 2am. At least our flight wasn't stupidly early the following morning!
This week has been our rest week, which we spent in Cartagena, a city on the north coast of Colombia. It's a beautiful city and we've really been able to unwind and reflect on our time in Bogotá, and prepare ourselves for Santa Marta. We leave for Santa Marta in 2 hours - very exciting but also a little scary!
We have been studying worship songs in our devotions this week, and I want to leave you with the lyrics of a song by Matt Redman which sums up really well my feelings looking back on Bogotá (Prayer requests are right at the bottom!):
Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we’ve come
Knowing that for every step
You were with us
Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You’ve done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us
Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say
Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Never once did we ever walk alone
Carried by Your constant grace
Held within Your perfect peace
Never once, no, we never walk alone
Every step we are breathing in Your grace
Evermore we’ll be breathing out Your praise
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
Prayer requests:
- Thank God for a great rest week
- That we settle in quickly in Santa Marta
- That language won't be too much of a problem (No one in our project speaks English!)
- For spiritual protection for the team
- For good health and good team relations
